Michael Kahn
Reuters, May 27, 1999.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 28 (Reuters) - They are the downtown daredevils,free-wheeling free-thinkers who whip, wander and weave through traffic-clogged streets gunning to make their next delivery.

Sporting wild hairstyles, tattoos and a hell-for-leather attitude, SanFrancisco's bike messengers are a vibrant part of the urban landscape,a tribe of athletic nonconformists who keep the wheels of commerce spinning.

But nonconformity becomes a little harder with age, and in San Franciscoas in many U.S. cities some messengers have now been on the job for morethan a decade. While their spirits are as free as ever, their rents aregoing up and their knees are giving out. So who will care for the ageingbike messengers?

For some the answer is clear: the International Longshore and WarehouseUnion, founded by labour militant Harry Bridges, which once staged strikesthat tied up shipping for weeks on the West Coast.

``The whole industry needs a good working-over from the bottom up, ''said Paul Kazemi, a messenger who has been riding for eight years. ``That'swhat we are trying to do.''

On June 1, messengers at one local San Francisco firm, Ultra Express,will become the first in the country to vote on whether to unionize, astep they say is needed to earn a fair shake and a decent wage from theiremployers.

``My job is a lot more high-risk than someone sitting in an office answeringphones,'' Kazemi, 33, told Reuters. ``It's not like the money isn't there.''

Bike messengers say they gravitate to their jobs for a variety of reasons.Some do it for the exercise or the chance join a fun community, while othersare simply hoping to avoid working in an office trapped behind four wallsand a desk.

BIKERS SAY THEY NEED HELP

Nevertheless, many messengers feel they deserve the same kind of benefitsothers in the workplace already enjoy. With riders often working 9-to-10-hourdays with no paid breaks, overtime or health benefits, they argue, changesare needed in the often dangerous profession.

The union drive has sparked similar efforts in Seattle, Portland andLos Angeles, where messengers face many of the same working conditions,Jerry Martin, an organiser with the San Francisco local of the ILWU, said.

``I would imagine messengers have similar complaints and face similarconditions across the country,'' he said, adding that they had also receivedletters of support from New York, Chicago and Toronto.

In San Francisco, about 2,000 people work in the messenger industry,including 300 bike riders as well as drivers, dispatchers, mechanics andwalking messengers, Martin said. While the union hopes to organise theentire industry, the bike riders are leading the charge, he said.

``They are the most active in organising at this point. The bikes arekind of the spearhead for the effort.''

If successful, the unionization drive looks likely to raise the costof bike messenger delivery, an important lifeline for law firms, medicaloffices and a host of other businesses operating in downtown San Francisco.

``The whole thing is predicated on raising the price of these tags (deliveries),''Martin said. ``They've been making their money on the backs of these messengers.''

BIKERS FOR BENEFITS OR COLD HARD CASH?

But Tom Finlay, a spokesman at one of the first three delivery firmstargeted for unionization, said many of the messengers want to maximizetheir take-home cash, not get bogged down in a complicated corporate benefitsplan that assumes they'll be riding for life.

At Dispatch Management Services Corp., one of the city's biggest messengerfirms with about 50 riders, an average pretax payout is $65 per day, andthe highest earners make $160-170 per day, Finlay said.

While the New York-based company offers workers 50 percent subsidisedhealth insurance and an opportunity to set up 401K pension plans, it hasfound that many messengers would rather get the money upfront and skipthe benefits plans.

``Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they shouldn't have access to companypension funds and those sorts of things,'' Finlay said. ``It' s just thatthe average person who comes and works on the job, they' re young, under30, and stay in the job one to two years.''

But at a recent rally and barbecue outside the offices of a local firm,many of the 50 or so messengers attending said even benefit plans likethe one at DMS are too expensive for them.

ILWU organisers brought the food and worked the grill as riders pulledin and lined up for kebabs and potato salad. Most piled their bikes againstnearby buildings and stuck around long enough to talk about why they needa union.

They agreed there is a high turnover rate among riders but point outmany do stay in for the long haul. ``There is a veteran core if you will,''said Howard Williams, president of the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association.

``If we get organised we can put enough pressure on the industry. Incomefor messengers has stagnated and we want to do something,'' said Williams,46, a 15-year veteran rider.

While some might scoff at the idea of the rough-and-tumble messengersgetting their act together to form a union, believers like Williams sayit is the only way.

They also say there is a precedent in California labour history: theunionization of San Francisco's hard-living longshoremen in the 1930s,which eventually led to union control of harbours up and down the WestCoast. ``We believe it is a militant union with much history behind it,''Martin said.